MLS Notes: Bengtson signed as a DP, Morgan gets new deal, and more

The New England Revolution have officially acquried Jerry Bengtson, but they have done so by making him the second Designated Player in the club's history.

The 25-year-old Bengtson was officially introduced as a member of the Revolution on Thursday morning, having agreed to a deal with New England that will see him play alongside fellow DP Shalrie Joseph, Benny Feilhaber and Saer Sene.

The Honduran international was acquired on an undisclosed transfer from CD Motagua. He will wear the No. 27 jersey for the Revolution.

As per club and league policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Here are more notes from around MLS:

MORGAN SIGNS LONG-TERM DEAL WITH TFC

Ashtone Morgan will be a member of Toronto FC for the considerable future after agreeing to a new long-term deal with the club on Thursday. The 21-year-old defender and Canadian international is in his second season with Toronto FC and has made 15 appearances while adding three assists this year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ARNAUD UPSET WITH PENALTY KICK CALLS

The Montreal Impact relinquished a lead en route to losing 3-1 to Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday, but being whistled for two penalty kicks in the process has not sat well with Davy Arnuad. The Impact captain touched on the pair of spot kicks that were awarded to Sporting KC in the second half of the match played at Stade Saputo, saying there's something wrong if a penalty kick is going to be given every time there is a battle in the 18-yard box. Arnaud also added that it should be the players who decide the outcome of games.

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What do you think of Bengtson being signed as a Designated Player by the Revolution? Like TFC's move to sign Morgan on a long-term deal? Think Arnaud has a point, or where the two penalty kicks legit?

Arnaud can cry all he wants, but the first PK was clearly the right call and the second can certainly be given, though it is not as clear cut. Don’t give up dangerous freekicks and corners and you dont have to defend in your own 18 so much.

I’m so tired of losing teams complaining over the ref just because they lost. Sometimes it just so happens that you actually deserved to get called for things, shocking I know. MLS refs may be a step behind, but the step is not as wide as the whiners would lead you to believe.

About the only people who should really complain about the refs are whoever happens to play San Jose, because they are going to dive and by God they are going to get the PK’s called for those blatant dives more often than not.

Arnaud’s complaints will fall on deaf ears because those were two clear cut penalties. Instead of lambasting the ref, one should be applauding him. When you saw the two incidents live they didn’t appear to be penalties but the replays clearly showed otherwise. I’m sure Arnaud will moan about the length of time that elapsed before the whistle was blown on the first penalty but I’d be willing to bet the ref conferred with the AR via his ear piece. I’d rather have him be 100% sure than make a snap, rash decision. MLS refs are a work in progress and leave folks head scratching but there’s nothing to debate here expect maybe how big of a whiner Arnaud is.

Congrats Rev’s on the signing. His highlights look really solid and his age is great for the league. NE is pretty stacked now, I hate to admit it.

Davy Arnaud needs to chill, he was complaining every call and non-call, it made the game almost impossible to watch. According to the replays, both PK calls looked accurate and the non-call in KC’s box was a good no call. Congrats to the Ref for making those calls, sometimes it takes more balls to make the right calls.

AND we “supposedly” have a nother player signing lined up (they say they’ve gotten a verbal commitment) and we are #1 in the allocation order so we could land the likes of Bocanegra if lady luck is kind to us.

Boca is exactly the type of player they need. I think they now have one of the best attacks in the league paired with a young solid defense, adding a captain-quality defender would be scary for the rest of us.

I think we need to know the fee just like the salary to understand how much our team has slapped down for their acquisition.

I also think from Dynamo history the fans ought to know hw the fee and salary relate because they can be an immediate tipoff the organization has made a goofy decision. The first hint LA Landin would not be much of a player should have been that his loan fee triggered DP status but his actual salary was something paltry like $125K. If the fee and salary are that disparate you may have set yourself up because the rights holder extracted a lot more money for the player than the player’s services merit them on the salary market.

MLS is too young of a league to be a buyer. We should be developing American players and then selling them to Europe and then putting that money into developing more. It is the Brazilian way and we should make it the American way. If we do this in 15 years we could then be a top league and become a buyer.

must get rid of these rules:
raise salary cap to an amount that DP’s are not needed. For instance 6mil
get rid of single entity
allow free agency
get rid of player drafts: allow young players to sign with the teams that are close to them if they want.

everything we do is structured like the NFL and it is wrong. It is wrong for soccer which is a global game.

It’s wrong in a country where soccer competes with itself like England or brazil however this is America. Would I love to do the things your saying of course but when MLS is behind NFL NBA MLB college football and basketball and even golf and NASCAR. So until MLS can compete finacially with these sports MLS has to grow slowly. As for being structured like the NFL hell yeah they are, why not model the leage after the most powerful and probably the richest sports league in the world.